This afternoon, the students in class 4b in the sports club at the Unterbiberg elementary school are wearing a leather glove on one hand and holding a small white ball in the other. Course instructor Jessica Hinrainer-Sucak lets them play baseball. Sometimes she does gymnastics with the children on the equipment, sometimes she does athletics with them. “The children all have their own skills, I bring them to their own limits,” says Hinrainer-Sucak, the Bavarian state coach of the U19 girls’ team in softball. She sees a great benefit in the sports group because it is a change from rigid lessons and the children there learn to find their own role in team sports.
The sports workgroups in the all-day classes with different directors are just one of the many reasons why the Unterbiberg elementary school was recognized as one of 37 elementary schools in Upper Bavaria as a sports elementary school by Bavaria’s Minister of Education, Michael Piazolo (free voters). In addition to the school in the Neubiberg district, the Konrad elementary school in Haar and the elementary school in Garching-West have also been certified in the Munich district.
Rector Christiane Bussert is happy about the award because she appreciates the work at the school.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
Elementary schools are eligible for this profile, “which, based on the existing support structures in teaching and school life, attach particularly high importance to the combination of education, sport and exercise as well as healthy nutrition,” according to the press office of the Ministry of Education. In other words, schools that are particularly committed to these areas. This applies to the elementary school in Unterbiberg in many aspects. In addition to the sports club, there is a table tennis club, and there are swimming lessons – the school has three teachers with swimming training.
Swimming in particular is difficult, says Rector Christiane Bussert, as she knows from the teachers, the trip there and back is longer than the time in the water. “But I think that’s so important.” Every year, the Unterhaching Gymnastics and Sports Club inspects the school to see whether children are particularly talented in athletics. The school also focuses on healthy eating, it has its own kitchen where organic and regional dishes are prepared.
There is a cooking group called “Wooden Spoons” for the third graders on the all-day train and project days called “Captain Clever”, most recently for all fourth graders, where the students learn, for example, how to make a chocolate cream spread themselves, how much sugar is in food or which fats are healthy. “I am firmly convinced that all of this has an impact on how children later cook for themselves,” says the headmistress.
Peeling apples: Year 3b students prepare Kaiserschmarrn with applesauce with nutritionist Christine Pleyer.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
A day later in the morning, part of class 3b let off steam snipping and peeling. At the Working Group Cooking Spoons with the qualified nutritionist Christine Pleyer, who also runs a nutritional advice practice in Unterbiberg, the children prepare Kaiserschmarrn with homemade applesauce on this day. Organic spelled flour, organic apples, organic baking powder are on the counter they work at. First of all, the girls and boys cut the apples and try a snippet before they start making the dough.
“I choose dishes that can be prepared quickly,” says Pleyer. Usually light, healthy, organic meals. But also something more complicated like Kaiserschmarrn. “I wish that they would also be prepared at home,” says the nutritionist. She also wants to pass on knowledge about nutrition to the children, because she has the feeling that people don’t cook as much at home anymore. With her “Blitz Pizza”, she wants to show, for example, that you can quickly prepare a pizza yourself using ingredients such as wholemeal toast, tomatoes and cheese and that you don’t have to order it.
At school, teachers and parents work together as a team
In addition to cooking, the students at Pleyer learn a lot more: table manners and food science such as the types of flour, for example. The children are so enthusiastic about what they are doing that something is sure to stick. “The teacher is so nice and everything we made was delicious, the spaghetti, the schnitzel, I would like to cook it at home,” says Amira from 3b, for example.
Of course, the variety of offers for exercise and nutrition were not present at the school overnight. “That has developed,” says Unterbiberg’s Rector Bussert. For example, she was always open when suggestions came from the school authorities to apply for one or the other program. In addition, the parents are very involved. The head of the sports club in class 4b has her own son at the school. The nutritionist, who heads the working group cooking spoons and also the Captain Clever project, is the mother of former students. The table tennis club is headed by the caretaker, who is a table tennis trainer himself. “We’re a team and support each other, that’s why everything is going so well,” says the headmistress.
The community also supports the school. When the letter came from the office in the summer asking whether the school wanted to apply for the primary school sports profile, everything happened very quickly, says the rector. “The physical education teachers were in favor of it straight away, because there are 1,000 euros that can be used to buy nice play and sports equipment,” she says. The money is to be spent on gates and on special vehicles that resemble kettcars. In addition, the school has benefited from a third physical education lesson for the first graders since the summer. “For me, the most important thing was the recognition of our work,” says Bussert. And it’s obviously worth it. Because the students not only have a lot of fun with the wide range of exercise and nutrition, they also learn something for life. “I like that you can work out and we do a lot together,” says Sara from class 4b, for example, about the sports club at Hinrainer-Sucak.
But the range of activities is even increasing: only recently the school applied for the “Gemüseackerdemie” educational program, which the association of the same name offers with the aim of teaching the children where the food on their plates comes from. Part of the school grounds will be converted to arable land. Pupils will cultivate the field and grow vegetables with their course leader – also a mother. The project will be overseen by the association for four years, after which it should work on its own. Bussert is confident: “If my dream comes true, the vegetables grown there will eventually be used in the cooking company.”